The report is based on phone surveys of nearly 250,000 residents in 189 metropolitan areas in 2012. Researchers found that 102 of the metropolitan areas had obesity rates lower than the national average of 26.2%. They also found that smaller cities were more likely to have high obesity rates than larger ones.

According to the report, the 10 metropolitan areas with the lowest concentration of obese residents in 2012 were:

According to the researchers, the average resident in the most obese areas earned $7,240 less than the national mean wage, while the average resident of the least obese areas earned $1,993 more than average. Overall, residents of more obese cities are "less likely to be able to consistently afford food and health care" than residents of the cities with low obesity rates, the report says.

The report notes that communities and employers in poverty-stricken areas would benefit from lower obesity rates. As such, "community and workforce leaders" should do more to promote healthy lifestyles in those areas (Gallup-Healthways report, 4/11).

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What Your Peers Are Saying

Rating:|Mary Richbourg|April 15, 2013

Get prepared, America. Your Obamacare insurance companies are about to charge you more if you are fat, and even perhaps if you live in a fat city! Why else does anyone care which cities are the fattest?

A new interactive map identifies the healthiest and least healthy counties in each state, drawing on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute's third annual county-by-county analysis of public health.